Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Reproduction Civil War quilt that I quilted for a customer and am in the process of hand binding.

This is a beautiful quilt I have the privilege of working on.

Here I am debating about what to do next. When I free motion quilt, ideas come to me as I'm moving down the quilt. My husband Pete calls this my super hero pose.

I got my idea and I'm on to the next part.

I always love it when a quilting plan comes together.

After the quilt is done I have to sew the Binding onto the back of the quilt with my "Bernie" my old Bernina 830.

You will probably notice this is not the same quilt I was working on in the photo above. This is an earlier photo of me binding another quilt, but hey I'm wearing the same shirt so I thought it would work well. LOL.

This is my big green chair where I do all my binding. It used to be in the living room along with a couch an ottoman and a love seat that matched. But we sold everything except this chair so we could put in my second Nolting long arm machine into the living room. So now this chair is in the dining room next to a chair my husband sits in and we have our TV in there to.

I have my old 1952 Singer 301 next to my chair so I can do some piecing and watch TV at the same time.

This is a place of comfort and relaxation for me.

The binding is almost done but still have a little bit to do on it.I love the look of these old reproduction fabrics.

These are reproduction Civil War fabrics, but the original fabrics which these are a copy of were possibly sewn on a machine like this. This is our 1879 Singer fiddlebasemodel 12 handcrank that sits in our foyer of our home. Singer started making the model 12 in 1865. The Civil War ended in 1865. I'm sure that some of the original Civil War fabrics were probably sewn on a the Singer model 12. Who knows maybe even this one.

My husband Pete fixed this sewing machine up and brought new life to once again and it still sews a very nice straight stitch. This old guy is 134 years old and works wonderfully.

Whata quilterdoeswith thread she just can't throw away.

The first thing I did was to take the Aquamesh and pin it to my Longarm frame.

Then I made a stabilizing grid of thread.

This is the first time long arm quilting anything where I have been able to

watch the bottom of my machine while I'm stitching the thread down

I made a crosshatching grid of thread in order to hold the bottom layer of the scarf together.

Then I took a whole bunch of loose thread that was left over from the last two years of quilting. These threads are the excess trimmed threads that come from long arm quilting. I took all this thread and laid it on the grid I created.

Then I took another layer of Aquamesh and laid it on top of it.

I then quilted another grid through all the layers.

Then I pulled off my red snappers and removed it from the frame.

Here is what it looked like after I quilted it not quite a scarf yet.

Then it was time to stretch it out and trim off the excess Aquamesh to be used in other projects.

I then took my project to the kitchen sink and proceeded to rinse it in warm water.

It's pretty amazing all the Aquamesh just washes away.

Basically it was like washing the fabric of the quilt away and all I'm left with is thread.

After quite a while of washing all the sticky gooey Aquamesh away I had my scarf made entirely of thread.

Then it was time to go to the drying rack overnight.

The next morning it was dry and ready to wear.

Now that I have it on my outfit is complete.

This scarf looks great with my earrings my husband Pete made me.

They are upcycled from the control dials off of an old

Viking 6460 sewing machine.

Colorful on one side and silver on the other.

On extra note, if the scarf feels stiff the after drying hand wash it again and let it dry and that should take care of any issues. But it should be very soft and comfy to wear.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

A few cream-colored Singers of the late 1950s and early 1960s that I have for sale.

By Pete Olson, also known as "The Sewing Machine Man" or "The Quilters Husband".

Each of these machines I have reconditioned and they run like brand-new.

Singer made similar best sewing machines during this time.

These are some wonderful machines that come in a great retro color.

This is the Singer 401 Slant-O-Matic sewing machine. It is in excellent condition and makes a wonderful stitch. Many people consider this the greatest Singer ever made. It has a gear driven all metal drive and there is absolutely no plastic inside of it. I'm selling it locally in the Tulsa area for $160. Sold,

This is the Singer 40K. It was made in Great Britain during the 60s, it looks like a little sister to the Singer 404 which is the next picture down after this one. This was a toy chain stitch machine and I am selling it for $84 at my Etsy Store.

This is the big sister to the Singer 40K, it is the Singer 404 Slant-O-Matic sewing machine. it is the straight stitch only version of the Singer 401. It has the same gear drive motor as well. I am selling it for $130 at my Etsy Store.

This is the Singer 233 sewing machine, it was one of the few Singers that was made in Japan, it is very heavy cast-iron and comes with a carrying case. I'm selling it locally in the Tulsa area $105.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

My Biggest and Littlest Sewing Machines

My husband Pete thought it would be cute to put my smallest sewing machine and my largest sewing machine together for some photos.

There is a really big difference in size between these two sewing machines.

These two sewing machines are my Nolting 24 inch long arm quilting machine and sitting on its bottom arm

is a Toy sewing machine he picked up and cleaned this last weekend. It is a Singer 40K made in the 1960s patterned after the 400 series of
Slant-O-Matics of the time.

My large Nolting has a 24 inch throat or harp space,

The little singer 40 K. has a 3 1/2 inch throat or harp space.

This little singer is a chain stitch hand crank child's machine.

Amazingly as you see on the photo above the hand wheel on the back of both these machines is around 3 inches. In fact the Singer 40 K. hand wheel is slightly bigger.

Both of the bases of these machines is the same width as well as you can see in this photo above.

Above is a shot taken from the other side of the quilting frame. I'm about to start on a customer's quilt after I figure out what thread color to use on it.

This photo above is my other Nolting long arm machine which only has a 16 inch throat, the little Singer looks much bigger in its harp space. This smaller purple Nolting helped me complete 200 quilts from January through October last year. Once I got my big green Nolting 24 at the end of October 2012 I've been using that one primarily but I still use what is now big green's little brother when I am working on more than one quilt at a time.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Product Review:

The GypsyCutting Gizmo

If you are a quilter who likes to piece quilt tops then you will love this product.

It is the Gypsy Cutting Gizmo, I like it first of all it is also because it's

purple and that's my favorite color.

But beyond that it works wonderfully for chain piecing.

It has a little notch in the top of it where a razor blade sits.

There is a slot on the side where you can replace the razor blade if it gets dull over time.

If you like to chain piece your quilt tops like I am doing here.

It works wonderfully because all you do is bring the two pieces of fabric up and drop the thread onto the razor blade. It is so much faster than using scissors.

It is so easy to use and makes the job a lot quicker. I was able to buy mine where I work part-time at Sew Flakes fabric store and Quilt Shop in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Just copy and paste this a link to see this product at Sew Flakes,

About Me

I am a Long Arm machine quilter. I love doing quilting for other people. I take your quilt top, backing fabric and batting and Quilt it on my Nolting long arm quilting machine's. I can do a quilt up to 122" wide on my machine.